Why must the internet make you JOIN everythng?

[HardyGirl]

You know what I'm talking about...Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Some of these were sites you could see w/o actually having to join. Now a lot of them block you unless you're a member. And now an online magazine I used to be able to see on Adobe reader switched to ISSUU that you have to JOIN! Why? When did we get to be a network of exclusive "clubs" that you have to join? It's that "clique mentality". Remember in high school when you couldn't be w/ the "cool kids"? You would think adults would be beyond that. But no...everytime I turn around, I gotta "join" something. I've always wish for we as adults to be inclusive. I don't like leaving people out. Yes, you can sit w/ the "cool" kids, b/c in your own way, you're cool too. This is just another way for these sites to get your e-mail address and flood you w/ useless crap mail. I hate it, and I'm not doing this anymore. I just want my internet experience to be pleasant and relaxing w/o pressure to JOIN things. Does anyone else feel this way?

[LonnieFisher]

Yep, it's stupid.

[enyawd72]

They want your information. PERIOD. And it's not just the internet. I left TRU fuming the other day. I had to return a NECA figure that broke right out of the package. Despite buying it just the day before, having my original receipt, etc. they refused to refund my money unless I gave them my driver's license and phone number, which they entered into their system "for my protection" they said. What a total line of bull****.
I asked point blankly, HOW does giving you MORE of my personal information, which is none of your business by the way, "protect" me. Protect me from what?

It's a total invasion of privacy and should be outlawed.

[thunderbolt]

just use bogus personal info, I do it all the time. Heck, my name might not really be Joe.

[HardyGirl]

Well, the point is, I shouldn't have to give them any information, fake or otherwise.

just use bogus personal info, I do it all the time. Heck, my name might not really be Joe.

[apes3978]

Well said HG...

[MegoSteve]

If the product is free, then you are the product.

[enyawd72]

They do that to track your returns. Resellers buy what they think will sell on ebay and return it if it doesn't sell. After so many the will refuse returns from you.

So, it's not for my "protection" after all and they lied right to my face. All the more reason not to shop there any longer.

[Duncan]

If the product is free, then you are the product.

That's it.

[jwyblejr]

Totally agree. And something to add,why does Facebook need this info again when you want to play any of their games? You already got that info when I joined,why do you need it a second time?

[Gorn Captain]

These days, when I open my e-mail, and I want to send a message to a friend, and start to "compose" my e-mail, I get a huge list offered of all the e-mail addresses connected to my FB account, even "friends of friends of friends" I have never heard of and have no intention of mailing.
I'm really fed up with this "need" to drown everybody in unwanted info.

When I go to the Yahoo main page, to get to my e-mail, you get all these "news stories", even ones that you don't want to see ("Man starves puppy to death"), and you can't even click it away. It just sits there everytime you want to read your mail.

This "info addiction" will drive us all crazy....

[Captain Big Trousers]

I use separate mail software for my Google and Yahoo accounts, so I never visit their websites to check my mail.

I also use a separate browser just for my Facebook. My main browser also has a Facebook account, but it's a bogus one; they can track "Roger Petersen" all they like. (and that FB account was set up using a bogus email address).

YouTube: Another fake account.

Any sites that I probably won't return to which require an account are accessed by using false info and throwaway email addresses. ( http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html )

My browsers have Adblock, Ghostery and anti-cookie add-ons.



All my privacy settings are set to "sod off" ( ), my firewall is set to "stealth mode" and I have a dynamic IP address.

Sure, I'm still being tracked, but there's no point in making it easy for them.

Probably be getting a VPN next month too.

[Gorn Captain]

You, sir, should join the Secret Service!

Thanks for all the tips, I'm going to take that advice!

[huedell]

It's (part of) the price you pay for shopping, browsing, researching and socializing on the Net. I guess that's what was meant above by "you are the product". It does cost money to run these businesses/websites.

[Captain Big Trousers]

It's (part of) the price you pay for shopping, browsing, researching and socializing on the Net. I guess that's what was meant above by "you are the product". It does cost money to run these businesses/websites.

I've been on the internet since before the beginning of the WWW (back in the Fetch and Gopher days). At the beginning of the WWW people made websites for the love of it. Cars, medicine, whatever; the website was there as a public service or a place for like-minded folks to meet.

Certainly these days the amount of traffic generated can elicit the need for adverts to counterbalance the costs of running a website, but to sell your viewers (and their browsing habits/lifestyles/innermost secrets) to a marketing company... that's entirely something else.

I was there at the start, before this was an issue, and I saw this creeping in and took countermeasures against it (a natural progression, not some sudden urge to "hide" myself). I'm always staggered by the (understandable) attitude from newbies that this is the "price" of being on the internet. It isn't, unless you're willing to submit to the rules set out by the insidious marketeers. They didn't make the internet, but they did corrupt it.

Sadly my children feel no need to cloak themselves and are entirely open books to the internet. God help 'em.